U.S. Consumer Confidence Running EvenHigher in February on Sunnier Outlook

Consumer confidence ticked up a few notches in February, suggesting that the economic strength of U.S. households will continue to support growth in the coming months.
The Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence rose to 130.7, up from 130.4 in January.
The gain was driven by a rise in the Conference Board’s gauge of expectations for income, business, and labor market conditions. The present situation metric declined from January.
“Consumer confidence improved slightly in February, following an increase in January,” said Lynn Franco, Senior Director of Economic Indicators. “Despite the decline in the Present Situation Index, consumers continue to view current conditions quite favorably. Consumers’ short-term expectations improved,

House Dems and Manhattan DA Cy Vance are gunning for President Trump’s financial records.
The House and Cy Vance’s office on Wednesday filed briefs with the Supreme Court seeking access to Trump’s tax records.
The Supreme Court in December agreed to hear three cases over President Trump’s financial records this year, setting up a historic legal showdown.
President Trump’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to hear two cases involving subpoenas issued by Democrat congressional investigators seeking the President’s tax returns and financial records from his accounting firm Mazar’s USA.
One case was brought by various committees led by House Democrats.

Should white people sing black spirituals?
Western Michigan University is grappling with that question after a black student was triggered and suffered a social media meltdown when a predominantly white choir sang “Wade in the Water.”
“So apparently Western Michigan University thinks it’s ok for WHITE peoples to sing negro spirituals while the instructor talking bout ‘these songs don’t belong to one race.’ They sure as hell DO,” WMU music major Shaylee Faught wrote on a social media now seen by more than 1 million people.
Faught got triggered after the choir’s black conductor reportedly told the audience that the selections were “American songs” performed “for everyone” and “have no ethnicity.”

The White House hosted an Ash Wednesday mass for Catholic staffers, to mark the beginning of the Lenten season.
The Mass was held in the South Auditorium of the Executive Office Building (EEOB) on Wednesday morning, according to White House sources.
Catholic White House officials attending the Mass, included Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, Director of the Domestic Policy Council Joe Grogan, and director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Dozens of White House staffers also attended and even some members of the Secret Service.

When word first broke that Meghan Markle had convinced Prince Harry to divorce the royal family, it struck many as a bizarre and sad conclusion to what could have been a great chapter in the family’s long history. Then, when Meghan turned out to be greedy and entitled, while Harry was apparently a milquetoast, people turned against the duo. Now, though, with the latest report on Meghan’s extraordinarily self-centered world view, she’s becoming a comic figure who must be enjoyed.
It started with Prince Harry, who had grown from being a bit of an ass to being an active-duty soldier to being an empathetic yet sunny member of the royal family,

Following Rahm Emanuel’s maxim that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says the Trump reaction to the coronavirus is too little too late and quibbles over how much money is “enough” to fight a possible pandemic. Yet at the same time, such is cryin’ Chuck’s concern for human life that he and his Democrats sustained a filibuster blocking a bill that would protect the lives of newborn infants that survive a botched abortion.
Senate Democrats today blocked a request by Republicans to vote on a bill that would stop infanticide and provide medical care and treatment

President Trump held a press conference on Wednesday to discuss coronavirus. Although many in the assembled press wanted to play “gotcha,” Trump struck a great balance between relaxed and serious and refused to play the media’s game. It was the perfect mien to reassure a nation that, while nothing serious is happening now, our federal government will be there should the situation change.
Trump explained that Vice President Mike Pence will henceforth be the point person on the coronavirus issue. When he was Governor in Indiana, Pence dealt with MERS in 2014, so he already has executive experience in managing an infectious disease.

An Oregon man has been busted for repeatedly duping Girl Scouts, buying cookies with counterfeit money, police said.
Camden Stevens Ducharme, 36, of Salem, was arrested Sunday on charges of theft and forgery after two separate Girl Scouts troops reported getting bogus bills while hawking their iconic baked goods earlier this month, the Statesman Journal reports.
During one incident, police said Ducharme passed a counterfeit $20 to purchase a box of cookies from a Girl Scout troop outside a Walmart in Salem and received legal currency in exchange, the newspaper reports.
Tiffany Brown, of Dallas, Oregon, about 15 miles west of Salem, said she filed a police report

A Florida man set his hospital bed on fire in a desperate attempt to get a nurse’s attention, police said.
John King, 75, admitted to police to using a silver and red Bic lighter to ignite a plastic bag in a shared room at a hospital in New Smyrna Beach where he felt staffers were ignoring his request to bring him his clothes, WKMG reports.
King’s hospital roommate told officials at AdventHealth New Smyrna Beach that he spotted King set a small object on fire, but convinced him to extinguish the flame. King then reignited the blaze, prompting his roommate to use an emergency button to call for help, the station reports.

Democrat presidential hopeful Joe Biden claimed Tuesday night that he could get China to allow U.S. health experts into the country simply by hectoring the country.
“Here’s the deal. I would be on the phone with China and making it clear, ‘We are going to need to be in your country. You have to be open. You have to be clear. We have to know what’s going on. We have to be there with you.’ And insists on it. And insist, insist, insist. I could get that done,” Biden said.
Biden offered no evidence that China would change its policies,

A 19-year-old man has been arrested and charged for attempting to blow up a vehicle in the Pentagon parking lot Monday morning, federal prosecutors announced.
The suspect, 19-year-old Matthew Dmitri Richardson of Arkansas, was allegedly observed striking a cigarette lighter against a piece of fabric placed into the SUV’s fuel tank. After Richardson was approached by a patroling Pentagon Police Officer, the suspect threatened to “blow this vehicle up” and “himself”. Richardson then allegedly fled on foot from the parking lot toward Virginia State Route 110 and onto Virginia State Route 27.
“According to court documents, after a search of Richardson, officers allegedly discovered a cigarette lighter, gloves,

Dick Pound, the longest-serving member of the IOC, estimates there’s a three-month window to decide the fate of the Tokyo Olympics, which are being threatened by the fast-spreading virus from China.
Pound, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, did not sound alarmist. But he did speak frankly about the risks facing the Olympics, which open July 24.
Pound has been an International Olympic Committee member since 1978, 13 years longer than current President Thomas Bach.
“You could certainly go to two months out if you had to,” Pound said, which would mean putting off a decision until late May and hoping the virus is under control.

Consumer confidence ticked up a few notches in February, suggesting that the economic strength of U.S. households will continue to support growth in the coming months.
The Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence rose to 130.7, up from 130.4 in January.
The gain was driven by a rise in the Conference Board’s gauge of expectations for income, business, and labor market conditions. The present situation metric declined from January.
“Consumer confidence improved slightly in February, following an increase in January,” said Lynn Franco, Senior Director of Economic Indicators. “Despite the decline in the Present Situation Index, consumers continue to view current conditions quite favorably. Consumers’ short-term expectations improved,

Meghan Markle believes she and Prince Harry are being 'picked on' and the restrictions being placed on them are 'payback' for wanting to be independent, she told her close friends, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal. Meghan grumbled to her inner circle last week over the Queen banning the couple from using the word 'royal' in their 'branding', later issuing an extraordinary statement appearing to complain the palace was treating them differently to other family members. (Snip) 'She said if anyone should feel insulted, it should be them. They never intended to capitalize on the word royal, and to insinuate they were somehow abusing their privileges is absurd.'

Former Vice President Joe Biden made an egregious claim during Tuesday’s Democratic debate, saying that a whopping 150 million people have been killed by guns since 2007.
Biden was asked how he would stop gun violence, with the moderator noting that “Congress has not been able to pass a major gun legislation in a quarter of a century.” The former vice president said that he is “the only one who ever got it done nationally” before making the false claim that 150 million people have been killed by guns since 2007.
“One hundred fifty million people have been killed since 2007,

Even in California, you have to be 18 to get a tattoo, 16 to drive a car, 21 to buy a gun, alcohol, or pot. But if you want to change your gender? Well, then, you just have to be 12. And your public school will be more than happy to help.
Need an abortion? Tell your teacher. Want to refill your birth control? Go to the school clinic. Thinking about starting hormone treatments? Your parents will never find out. At least, not under the policy the California Teachers Association is pushing.
That’s the amazing revelation from last month’s union meeting.

Should white people sing black spirituals?
Western Michigan University is grappling with that question after a black student was triggered and suffered a social media meltdown when a predominantly white choir sang “Wade in the Water.”
“So apparently Western Michigan University thinks it’s ok for WHITE peoples to sing negro spirituals while the instructor talking bout ‘these songs don’t belong to one race.’ They sure as hell DO,” WMU music major Shaylee Faught wrote on a social media now seen by more than 1 million people.
Faught got triggered after the choir’s black conductor reportedly told the audience that the selections were “American songs” performed “for everyone” and “have no ethnicity.”

A seven-month deployment in Afghanistan shrouded in secrecy is a key piece of Pete Buttigieg’s pitch to voters in the 2020 presidential race, with the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor arguing that his status as a veteran and his time in a war zone give him foreign policy gravitas and first-hand military experience none of his Democratic primary rivals can claim.
That supposed strength, however, ultimately could become a weakness in a potential general election match-up with President Trump and a Republican Party that is already eyeing ways to turn Mr. Buttigieg’s time as a Naval intelligence officer into a liability. Some of those who served alongside Mr. Buttigieg in Afghanistan

A number of pundits have recently argued that younger voters, especially those under 30, are less inclined to be bothered when they hear the word “socialism,” since they have no firsthand memory of the Cold War.
To some extent, this must be true. Those who weren’t alive during socialism’s cruelest catastrophes — or even its many banal failures — will be less put off by the idea. Then again, if a presidential candidate were praising the excellent public transportation system of the Third Reich or going on about the some alleged benefit to American slavery, they would rightly be chased from the public square forever

Harvey Weinstein is “in disbelief,” but “not delusional,” about his conviction, as he remains under care at Bellevue Hospital before being transferred to Rikers Island, where he’ll be put behind bars.
“He’s still in disbelief of the charges he was convicted of. He’s very consistent about his innocence,” one of Weinstein’s attorneys, Arthur Aidala, told Variety over the phone late Wednesday night.
Weinstein was convicted Monday on two felony charges: criminal sex act in the first-degree for assaulting Miriam Haley by forcible oral sex in 2006, and rape in the third-degree for raping Jessica Mann in a New York City hotel room in 2013.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has declared a local emergency amid coronavirus fears.
“Although there are still zero confirmed cases in San Francisco residents, the global picture is changing rapidly, and we need to step up preparedness,” Breed said in a statement Tuesday. “We see the virus spreading in new parts of the world every day, and we are taking the necessary steps to protect San Franciscans from harm.”
While three people have been treated for COVID-19 at San Francisco hospitals, there have been no confirmed cases of the illness in the city. Breed made the announcement following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s warning

Washington - President Donald Trump pushed back Wednesday against criticism that his administration isn’t doing enough to meet the coronavirus threat, as lawmakers called for giving disease fighters much more money than the $2.5 billion the White House has requested.
A day after he sought to minimize fears of the virus spreading widely across the U.S., Trump prepared to hold a White House press conference with experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
He tweeted that the CDC, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and others in the administration are “doing a great job with respect to Coronavirus!” and accused some news outlets of “panicking markets.”

Prison bosses are reportedly worried about how to handle Harvey Weinstein while he is in jail, fearing he may commit suicide—just like Jeffrey Epstein. Weinstein was convicted of rape and sexual assault on Monday and officials at New York prisons are said to be concerned another high-profile inmate could take his own life. Billionaire Epstein hanged himself last August in his cell at Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Now it is feared Weinstein may have to be kept in a private section of Rikers Island's North Infirmary Command, which is for high-risk inmates, for his own safety.

This past weekend, I and many of my colleagues received the shocking news that famed Obama administration DHS whistleblower Phil Haney had died. My first indication was a text from a friend late Friday night: "Sorry so late but I am hearing Phil Haney has been killed." I had received something earlier in the evening, but the person texting had thought it was a joke. It was no joke. Phil Haney, a long-term colleague and person I had come to know personally, had been shot dead. Rumors from friends contained many inaccuracies, like "he had been missing for days," "found in a remote area," etc.

Chicago Public Schools will no longer observe Columbus Day.
The Board of Education voted to change the name to Indigenous Peoples’ Day as other cities and school districts have done. The board’s vote on the issue was 5-2.
The school holiday will be on Oct. 12 this year.
CPS is working to develop new curriculum to more accurately tell the history of Native American cultures.
The holiday has been controversial because the day has been used to commemorate Italian explorer Christopher Columbus who claimed to have discovered America in 1492. The area was already populated by indigenous people and some have argued that Columbus’ actions led to their genocide.